Resurrected - San Francisco

The social scene is subpar. What are you doing 

How's the homeless situation in your view?

Natenberg

Yes this has been an absolute downer of a topic, and people on here years ago ragged on the city. Just starting this up to give some new perspective on how solid this city is.

Weather is better, pay is on par, social seen is solid even with covid, and rents are down. Seriously not as previous posters have told weary job seekers.

For all you that are here. Spill your two cents because frankly I just got here and I'll definitely be staying.

"Weather is better."  As much as I'd enjoy accusing you of idiocy after this claim, I'll say you're a liar after 2020 witnessed forest fires that blanketed the Bay Area, the PNW, and most metros in the Rockies.  The weather has gotten worse.  Only visited for a weekend last month, but things in SF have not gotten any better on any metric you listed. 

Lol "social scene is solid" - what is your definition of solid?

Been in the bay 10+ years / in SF 5+ years.

Weather is probably better if you're coming from a place with snowy winters but 65* year round gets boring quick. Every day being the same dilutes the experience of transitioning to spring and summer (where it is absolutely foggy).

Wrt social scene: I think most people in the city are douchebags. But I also think that about finance so I'm probably just the wrong personality type to begin with. People shit on finance culture but in many ways tech seems even worse. At least finance has a significant population that is self-aware. It's an incredibly materialistic place out here and the amount of tech liquidity event wealth drives a lot of people to a great gatsby exuberant lifestyle that is completely and utterly out of touch with reality.

SF is a great city for a certain type of person. Plenty of outdoor activities, relatively good weather and of course a good tech scene. There aren't many places where you can go surfing and skiing within a few hour drive. And there are also opportunities like Napa that are within driving distance and great as well. If your issue is the homelessness, the Bay Area also has tons of great suburbs with top schools and neighborhoods.

But if you're looking for great nightlife and want to be in California, then SF isn't the place to be. Try LA. Yes, rents are down but it's still quite high and the lower rents are arguably only a temporary event. That being said, COL of SF and NYC are very comparable, so despite the homelessness issue, SF isn't necessarily more expensive.

This really wasn't a post to compare SF to NYC or state superiority over other cities. Just wanted to point out that the typical arguments why it sucks are not as valid as people claim then to be.

If you want to live at clubs then SF is not your choice. If you want to ski Tahoe, hit some national parks and always sit at the beach or surf on the weekend then it very well may be the spot for you.

Homelessness is so overdone. Philly is a mess yet people still enjoy Penn. Same type of argument could be used to deter you from going to NYU or living in parts of NYC.

I personally enjoy the bars here. People are cool if you look in the right places or have friends here as well.

Fully agree with making dough here and then making moves when the time comes. It's all what you make it. The city is also full of transplants from everywhere so I think that's cool too.

Keep flaming the post haha

Lived in SF for 5 years and moved out three weeks ago (heading to MBA elsewhere).

I liked my time in SF overall but it definitely has its cons. Overall I think the city is beautiful but and on a sunny/warm day found myself thinking fuck this place is great. On other days I thought fuck this place is a dump. My list of pros/cons are...

Pros:

• Friendly people

• Good # of young people (talking about SF proper)

• Great weather

• Lots of nature nearby (beaches, golden gate park, yosemite/Tahoe not too far)

• awesome food

• fun bar scene (1-2 decent clubs too like audio, but won't pretend they are close to things in NYC or Miami, etc)

Cons:

• Super expensive for what you get. I was paying $2400 for a 1br apartment with no dishwasher or laundry in building. Good location but fuck like it's outrageously expensive and you don't get much for what you pay.

• shit closes really early. The city feels like a wasteland after 8pm except for a few small pockets where stuff is open.

• homeless people everywhere. Certain parts of the city (financial district, parts of the mission, the tenderloin, soma) are dirty as fuck and just generally unpleasant to be in.

• The tech circlejerk is pretty annoying and gets old.

• because of the crazy weath creation and lack of ability to build up, it's generally impossible to afford a reasonably nice house unless you're making >$500k a year IMO. For context a friend bought a $1.2m apartment that is 2br 1ba and tiny. I (and basically all my friends) were pretty much resigned to move out of town when we decided to settle down and buy something.

• inept government that makes you pay high taxes for nothing in return. Public transit sucks - bart is gross as fuck and muni is the most unreliable shit ever. Roads are bumpy, see highway 101 where I'm almost blowing out my tires driving to work every day. I'm fine paying taxes if they are actually improving my quality of life but all they're being used for is setting up sanctioned homeless camps and other shit that doesn't actually make a long term impact or benefit me in any way. This is a big reason why people are leaving. London Breed is a fucking idiot, Idk why I voted for her.

SF is a great place and I think people on here shit on it who haven't actually been there. Would I live there long-term? I dunno, maybe. It has its flaws, but it also has moments that make you want to stay forever. Go to Dolores park on a sunny weekend day and you'll see what I mean.